Let’s say you’re having a great year. What if you want to do even better next year? You can improve your sales performance if you know what to measure. Here are some areas to consider. Number of Sales Calls made. You are making it harder to be successful in sales if you’re going to sit in your office all day. While you’re there you spend time working on prospect research … [Read more...]
Women who sell need to manage their manager
I recently got a call from a female sales professional. She had been working for her sales manager for 7 weeks. I had a meeting scheduled with her male sales manager. She was calling to reschedule the appointment for him. Why was she calling when my appointment was with her manager? Her manager asked her to. It seemed odd to me that she was asked to do this. I thought it was … [Read more...]
Women in Sales: Be careful.
Women in sales, have you heard about the hubbub going on at GitHub? It seems that engineer Julie Ann Horvath left the company because of allegations about gender-based harassment. There is a lot in the media to show that some unusual things did happen. In fact, the company president and co-founder, Tom Preston-Werner, stepped down. He was criticized that he had mishandled … [Read more...]
2 Important Rules for Your Selling Success
Here are a few rules for you to shorten your sales cycle and ensure your selling success. Here’s how you can make more money in sales. Rule #1. Have a plan for every sales call. How will you know your sales call is a success? It’s not when you feel like it was a great call. It’s only when you’ve left the call with more than you had when you went in. That … [Read more...]
Did you forget about your most important customer?
I often marvel how salespeople spend so much time managing their customers. They will prioritize them by size, revenue, profits and all types of criteria to see where they should be spending their time and effort. Of course that's a good idea. What they're forgetting is that they have another very important customer. It's their manager. Even if you're on commission, your … [Read more...]
Do Prospects Hit the Delete Key With Your Voicemail When You Sell?
There are just a few reasons why you're not getting a meeting with a prospect. Are you giving them a compelling reason to meet? Do you sound credible? Do they have a reason to believe you can deliver what you say? If your voicemail is irrelevant to their business get ready for the delete button on their voicemail. If you sound hesitant, too cocky, too meek, or unprofessional … [Read more...]
Are you making a sales mistake?
I see this over and over again with salespeople. They make the mistake of presenting too soon. How do I know? I ask them if their clients are saying, "I need to think about it" to make a buying decision. What's to think about it your customer truly needs what you are selling? It's your job to ask the questions that guide a customer to understand there is a need, it's an … [Read more...]
Are you getting ripped off?
Does your sales process include submitting proposals? Does the proposal include a road map of the solution to your prospect's problem? That's dangerous. Your prospect could take your expertise and shop it to the lowest bidder. That has to stop. I understand that you want to demonstrate your expertise in the proposal. You can do this without giving your knowledge away. In … [Read more...]
What Every Sales Manager Should Know
Imagine being hired to work on an assembly line. On your first day your manager gives you your work instructions. He says, "Put the parts together any way you want. It's fine with me." Sounds nuts? Well why is this being done in sales? Your manager should have an idea of how many quality sales calls you should be making a day. At least he should know a range. He should know … [Read more...]